Julie Bishop to quit politics at the next election – as it happened

Former Australian foreign affairs minister says she will not recontest the seat of Curtin. All the day’s events, live

Updated

Julie Bishop announces her retirement from politics on Thursday. She reminds the House of Representatives she was the first woman to contest the leadership ballot in the Liberal party’s 75-year history.
Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

And with that, we shall bid you adieu, until April, when the budget is handed down.

But don’t expect the issues of today to disappear quietly into the night. There is a Newspoll next Monday, if I am not mistaken. And a lot of space for all it to play out.

This is not the end of the week the government would have wanted.

Plus, China seems to be causing all sorts of issues in the background.

It’s not over, is what I am saying. But my ability to take in another moment of this day, is.

Make sure you check back with Guardian Australia for all the updates to these and every other story which pops up between now and 2 April. Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Gabrielle Chan and everyone else on the Guardian’s brains trust, along with me, will keep plugging away in between blogs, as usual.

A very big thank you to everyone for dragging my caffeine-fuelled, eye-twitching shell across the line after what was a pretty insane start back to parliament. Even by the standards of the 45th.

And as always, a massive thank you to everyone who followed along with us, today, and the past few days. You are the reason we all keep chugging along.

But go take a break, have a breath, catch up on any movie missing from your pop culture repertoire. We’ll all be back here before you know it. And very shortly after that, the election campaign will (officially) begin in earnest. And you know you’ll need all your wits about you for that.

Customs at China’s northern Dalian port has banned imports of Australian coal and will cap overall coal imports for 2019 through its harbors at 12m tonnes, an official at Dalian Port Group said on Thursday.

The indefinite ban on imports from top supplier Australia, effective since the start of February, comes as major ports elsewhere in China prolong clearing times for Australian coal to at least 40 days.

Coal is Australia’s biggest export earner and the Australian dollar tumbled on the news, falling more than 1% to as low at $0.7086 AUD=D3.

Labor’s environment spokesman, Tony Burke, has been reading the interim independent report released by the government this afternoon on the Menindee Lakes fish kill.

The report says the panel found no evidence a risk assessment was done at weir 32 before the fish kill, despite “a likely blue-green algal event being identified in the WaterNSW Lower Darling operations plan over the 15 months prior to the fish death events occurring”.

The panel has made 20 recommendations, including that there be an investigation to identify sites where mass deaths of fish might occur in future.

But Burke has suggested there is not enough focus in the report on the long-term problems in the country’s largest river system.

“I’m working through the report and the recommendations but on the face of it none of them involve more water, which is pretty important for fish,” he said.

It sort of disappeared in the midst of, well, the giant wheelie bin that this day became, but the Law Council has responded to Peter Dutton’s announcement of attempting to ban foreign fighters from returning.

While matters of national security and protecting Australians from terrorism are of utmost importance, the federal parliament must ensure responses are proportional, constitutional and take into account Australia’s international obligations.

The introduction of temporary exclusion orders (TEOs) could have the effect of rendering an Australian unable to legally enter Australia – or indeed any other country if they are not a citizen of another country and hence have no right to enter another country – while the order is in place.

As a result, these laws may be inconsistent with Australia’s international obligations.

It is the Law Council’s view the government’s proposed introduction of TEOs must be carefully considered and not rushed through the parliament.

He has just released this statement accusing Bill Shorten and Jim Chalmers of “grossly inaccurate assertions”:

“Under parliamentary privilege, Bill Shorten and Jim Chalmers made a number of grossly inaccurate assertions in relation to previous tender decisions on whole-of-government travel arrangements, which would otherwise be defamatory.

“In relation to the 2014 decision to appoint QBT Pty Ltd as the new whole-of-government travel management services provider for a period of four years:

“Firstly, this was not a decision by me as minister or by the government. It was a procurement decision, which like all other procurement decisions in my portfolio made during my period as finance minister, was the result of an independent competitive tender process.

“Secondly, and more importantly, QBT/Helloworld back then was actually competing with Mr Andrew Burnes and the AOT business he was then the CEO of.

“In fact, AOT participated in that tender and was unsuccessful.

“In contrast, AOT and Mr Burnes were first awarded the whole-of-government accommodation program management services contract back in 2012 – that is during Labor’s last period in government.

“It is this contract, which was renewed in 2017 as a result of another independent tender process.

“While both the 2012 and 2014 contracts were appropriately subject to independent competitive tender processes, under the flawed Shorten/Chalmers Labor logic in the House of Representatives today – it was Labor which decided to give a contract to a Liberal donor, whereas the Liberal-National government awarded the 2014 contract Labor is criticising now to his competitor.

“ASX records show that AOT only merged with Helloworld/QBT in early 2016, well after the independent tender decision made by the finance department back in 2014, which Mr Shorten and Mr Chalmers referenced in their inaccurate and baseless attack today.

“Mr Shorten and Mr Chalmers could have and should have reviewed that material ASX announcement before launching such an unsubstantiated parliamentary attack.

“Mr Shorten and Mr Chalmers should apologise for their baseless and inaccurate smear, which the most basic and rudimentary research would have exposed as such.

“Finally, given the hours of evidence I provided in Senate estimates earlier this week, both Mr Shorten and Mr Chalmers know (or at least should know), that I did not seek or obtain free travel.

“The travel was never paid for by Helloworld as wrongly asserted by Labor as part of an increasingly desperate attempt to smear. It was booked with Helloworld, I supplied my credit card to pay for it at the time of making the booking, when the payment was not processed as the result of an administrative error on behalf of the company it remained listed as an outstanding debt, which was paid immediately when I was first notified that payment had not been processed.”

Patricia Karvelas: You say this is a disgruntled ex-staff member. Is it worth investigating whether he’s a whistleblower and alleging something that is truthful?

Simon Birmingham: Whistleblowering what?

PK: Well, he’s whistleblowing ...

SB: What’s the allegation you’re making?

PK: OK, I will share it with you. He got a quicker meeting as a result of Hockey owing him something.

SB: How do you determine a quicker meeting?

PK: Well, that’s what he said. He said he secured a quicker meeting.

SB: Our ambassadors meet with people all the time.

PK: You don’t think there’s anything worth investigating here?

SB: I don’t see there is any allegation of impropriety. In fact, all of the evidence all week from every public servant and official about any procurement issues is that the letter of the law and the book in terms of policy process was followed every step of the way, completely detached from any political process.

Email bombshell from 'disgruntled former employee' says minister

Simon Birmingham is speaking to the ABC and was asked about the email from Russell Carstensen, which set off a series of political bombs this afternoon:

We have a disgruntled former employee of a business. It’s not unusual for heads to meet with Australian business agents or representatives. It happens all the time. It would be happening in different countries at present.

“Regardless, there’s nothing to suggest there is any impropriety. Yes the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has a travel contract.”

Today Mr Morrison posted on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, praising Chinese-Australians for their “profound influence” and calling on Australians to “unite as one to defend our hard-won, harmonious and free society”.

“The remarks made by senator Barry O’Sullivan do not represent my views, nor do they represent the views of the Liberal and National parties’ Coalition government.

“For more than 200 years, Chinese immigrants have worked hard to contribute new ideas, helped shape Australia’s identity and made outstanding contributions to the prosperity of Australian society.”

Today I announced that I will not re-contest the seat of #Curtin at the next election. It's been an honour to serve as the member for Curtin, Foreign Minister of Australia & Deputy Leader of @LiberalAuspic.twitter.com/Vqai7ht03K